Witches in Northern France a hundred years ago were either herbalists--who used many of the same traditional remedies you'd find in a health store today, including St. John's wort--or sorciers, fate-changers. In A Citizen of the Country you'll see both kinds. Omer Heurtemance, the postcard-seller, is an herbalist, doing traditional medicine for people who generally couldn't afford a doctor. Monsieur Auclart, the pharmacist, is a sorcerer. And so is the eighteen-year-old Sabine.

In our own way, we're all sorcerers, trying to change each other's fates. As husbands and wives, as parents, as lovers; as we do our work; as we try to be good citizens of our countries, good soldiers or filmmakers or actors, we're all trying to make an impression on someone else, to change another person's life.

Some of us do it well; some so badly that we don't have to call on any external evil.

Nothing in France almost a hundred years ago--least of all Sabine--has to do with modern Wicca. To find out more about those modern witches, try the site www.witchvox.com, The Voice of the Witch--over 2000 pages and links to every variety of modern witchcraft and paganism.